Modern Currencies

Sophomore album from Toronto band is as loud and jagged as its predecessor but more varied in terms of songwriting, with welcome vocal contributions from ex-Hole/Smashing Pumpkins bassist Melissa Auf der Maur.

No matter how much my tastes change or how many different types of music I discover, I always make room for a good rock record. The feeling inspired by a sharp riff and a big, grabbing melody is always welcome. There's a ton of that on Modern Currencies, Uncut's second album and a worthy follow-up to 2004's outstanding debut Those Who Were Hung Hang Here (don't believe All Music Guide-- two of the four albums they list are by completely different bands named Uncut). Around that time, they were pegged as the Toronto chapter of the post-punk revival or, more lazily, a Canadian Interpol.

The latter label wasn't really fair or accurate, though the two bands do share a knack for propulsive tunefulness. It's even less accurate now, as the quartet's sound has grown measurably since the debut. They're sharper and less reliant on sheer volume to make an impact, though the band's self-production still keeps the needle in the red most of the time. They've also added a songwriter from within, as bassist Derek Tokar has taken up the pen alongside guitarists Ian Worang and Sam Goldberg. And they managed to rope in ex-Hole/Smashing Pumpkins bassist Melissa Auf der Maur for some backing vocals.

The record opens with a massive guitar hook that plays against Worang's sing-speak vocal. It's odd-- he doesn't even sing the chorus to "Darkhorse", instead delivering the line "Let's just kill all the living/ They're not all made to live" in an oddly memorable chant. The band's three writers have distinct, complementary styles, a la Sloan, Fugazi, or the Beatles (comparing methods here, not music). Worang tends to write his biggest hooks into the guitar parts, delivering lyrics in a reserved tone that borders on speech while the rhythm carries him. Goldberg's approach is just the opposite; he's the purest singer in the band, and there's a satisfying tension between his soft delivery and the thunderously loud music around him. Tokar falls somewhere in the middle, with a tendency to set things spiraling at an extremely high tempo and thread his gentle vocals through it all.

It's hard to pick a standout from this batch of songs-- it's an album where it depends on which song you're listening to at the time-- but Goldberg's "Kiss Me" is as good a candidate as any, with its chiming guitar melody and counterintuitively hushed vocals. Goldberg and Auf der Maur sound so natural together that it's difficult to even notice at first that they're both singing on "Never Say Never"-- it almost sounds like double tracking. The band saves the three quickest tempos for the record's last third, unleashing them in a row before splashing down into "Prison Waltz", which features a guest vocal from Ndidi Onukwulu and ends the album with the guitars groping skyward.

It's tough to find much to fault on Modern Currencies, but while it's very consistent in quality, it can also be over-consistent in tone and overall sonic character; all those soaring, searching guitars can bleed from one song to the next. As weaknesses go, though, a band could certainly do worse, and this is an album I can certainly see myself finding time for in the future.